this week, an american journalist is murdered. isis is an im90 threat. plus, more unrest in ferguson as the shooting death of michael brown continues. and an abuse of power or just hardball politics? we'll take a closer look at the perry indictment and the growing trend of political prosecutions. the united states of america

will continue to do what we must do to protect our people. we will be vigilant and we will be relentless. when people harm americans anywhere, we do what's necessary to see that justice is done, and we act against isil standing alongside others. >> welcome to the "journal editorial report." i'm paul gigot. that was president obama condemning the execution of james foley and promising to bring the isis terrorist responsible to justice. chuck hagel told reporters thursday that the threat posed by the militant islamic group is, quote, beyond anything we've seen. so far the u.s. military mission in iraq continues to focus on containment. so does the administration have a plan to defeat isis? let's ask "wall street journal" columnist and deputy editor dan henninger and columnist bret stephens.

bret, do you think the murder james foley will change president obama's calculus in how to respond to isis? >> well, it should. but i don't think it will. the reason i don't think so is because you heard eric holder, attorney general eric holder talking about opening a criminal probe into the murder of foley. foley's murder was an act of war. it was a statement of intent. the suggestion that somehow we're sending fbi agents into the deserts of western iraq to start forensically investigate what happened just shows the disconnect between what isis intend toward us and the way the president is approaching a problem, which is to say a clinical approach that doesn't understand fully what it means to have a national security threat to the united states. >> yet, dan, we had the secretary of defense chuck hagel come out and say, look, this is like nothing we've seen before. this is an imminent threat to america, to the homeland. that is ratcheting up the threat

level in the perceptions of the american public. is that a disconnect, too, or is the administration maybe trying to actually educate americans in order to act more than bret thinks they will? >> paul, i think the administration is trying to educate the president of the united states to the reality. i truly do. i just think there is a tremendous political and poli policy -- >> you don't think chuck hagel said that -- >> chuck hagel, no, i don't think he said it with white 0 house approval. chuck hagel and the pentagon understand, as he said, a threat like we've never seen before. but what they also understand is they're operating inside the constraints and limitations that president obama has imposed. at this point, those constraints still exist. they're over there to protect the yazidis, now off the mountain, and to protect the u.s. presence in erbil, northern iraq. general dempsey, the head of the

join chiefs of staff, has said publicly that isis cannot be defeated unless we go after them in syria. >> and you have to -- >> presidepresident obama said we will not go into syria. >> president dempsey made the point that his mission is as limited as you said. they are planning a broader mission if they get the go-ahead in the president. >> the pentagon always has more options onts table and that's become the great cliche of this administration to make americans think that there's a possibility of doing more than they're ever going to do. basically, this is a president who is operating with certain ideological guidelines. he's said, i'm the president who ends wars, not the guy who initiates them. i'm the guy reducing america's footprint, particularly in the middle east where, in his view of the world, it's just an endless sea of trouble, we're painting over rust, there's nothing we really can do. there's a kind of keowcounsel o

despair in everything he does. that's why he thinks containment is the most we can do against isis. >> how 0 can can he continue that posture if we're dealing in a world where they roll out american and kill a hostage every two weeks or start to hit targets in europe? we had the intelligence director of the new york police department in this week. he said they've added isis to their main threat one of the main threats they now worry about because of passport holders from europe and some from america who will find entry back into the united states relatively easy. amid that threat, how can the president maintain that hands-off posture? >> you saw this in his press conference the other day after speaking about foley's execution. this is a cancer so therefore we're going to organize some kind of coalition. if a doctor says, you have cancer, right? typically the idea is we're going to treat you right away.

we're going to treat this problem with the urgency it deserves. the significant thing about foley's execution was the accent of the man who spoke over him, a british accent, a visa-free country. there are hundreds of british fighters or european fighters who would have visa-free access to the united states. there are probably dozens or scores of americans u.s. passport holders who are also fighting there. the new york city police department is thinking about this. i'm sure the justice department is thinking about this. i don't think it has sunk in in the inner core of the white house just how close it is for these people in western iraq to get to new york city. >> you thii think you may be wr about this. i don't think the president can sustain this level of inactivity for isis. i think he has to expand it. when we come back, more unrest this week in ferguson, as the investigation into the shooting death of michael brown continues. so, should political leaders be

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3 times better than the competing gel and helps keep your dishwasher sparkling. cascade platinum. the national outcry we have seen speaks to a sense of mistrust and mutual suspicion that can take hold in the relationship between law enforcement and certain communities. i want the people of ferguson to know that i personally understood that mistrust. i wanted them to know that, while so much else may be uncertain, this attorney general and this department of justice stands with the people of ferguson. >> that was attorney general eric holder thursday after returning from ferguson, missouri, the sight of more unrest this week in the wake of a fatal shooting of a black teenager by a white police officer. more detaifls are still emerging. a grand jury began hearing

evidence in the case on wednesday. a process authorities say could stretch into mid-october. we're back with dan henninger and bret stephens. jason, the central fact of the case is we don't know what happened. >> we still don't know a heck of a lot. >> what about the political response? with eric holder intervention in the case? >> what's disturbing is you have a lot of people in responsible positions who have already made up their mind. a governor calling for the vigorous prosecution of a police officer who hasn't even been charged. you have a state senator threatening more riots if the cop isn't indicted. you have calls for the prosecutor who's bee position for 20 years and has successfully prosecuted plenty of police officers -- >> this is robert mccull lu. >> calls to recuse himself because 50 years ago a black man shot his father. you have people jumping to

conclude consciences l conclusions left and right. these are the people who you expect cooler heads to prevail among. >> bret, yet they are responding, as the attorney general said, mistrust about the local police and how they've handled this and the local prosecutor. >> yeah. i just think it's a pity it's the federal government that should be responding. look -- >> why is it a pity? >> because i don't think this should be a federal issue, at least not at this stage of the investigation. at most, i think it should be a state issue. it's i pity when federal office holders jump in and reach the apparent conclusions that you just heard eric holder reach. >> whoa, we've had a history in this country where sometimes local jurisdictions, particularly on matters of race, are not fair. >> yes. >> and it's not a very pretty history. >> you're absolutely right. but this is not 1964. so we have to recognize that that's -- we're not living in the year of segregation of jim

crowe. this is 2014. you have a democratic governor of the state. clearly you have a responsive community. what i think where serious questions can be raised is in the kind of policing that the ferguson police were doing. you know, here in new york for the last 20 years we've had huge reductions in crime, thanks to what's known as a broken windows theory of policing, which tries to take care of petty criminality very quickly which focused on the good relationship between the police departments and their communities. that doesnseem to have happened ferguson. leaving sa aside the details, there's the police work. >> jason, what about that point? >> i don't think the problem is the cops. the problem are the black criminals in this neighborhood. i mean, holder talks about distrust. there is distrust. but that distrust is born of black criminality, black crime rates. and until you tackle those black crime rates, the fact that

blacks are disproportionately are breaking the law ferguson and other places, you're never going to get at that distrust. the cops are in these neighborhoods because that's where the 911 calls are coming from. these neighborhoods aren't overpoliced. the cops are trying to protect the law-biding members of the community. >> yet the perception is real. you can't deny it. the perception among a large part of the public that they're not sure that they're going to get a fair investigation. >> well, one reason we want objective officials looking at this, if they're in the federal government and they're eric holder, is because of this distrust. but i don't believe he has the trust of the american people. >> you mean eric holder. >> because his rhetoric on race has been so irresponsible for so long this is the same nan who has been locking arms with al sharpton about racially driven administration. >> you think he'll drive it toward a prosecution?

>> i think he's lost the trust of the american people as an objective arbiter on he a situation as racially charged as the one in ferguson. >> ferguson is a town of 21,000 people, and there are black people living there. there are black people living in towns all over america and they don't blow up like ferguson. we don't quite understand here what it is that eric holder wants the police department in ferguson to do to overcome this mistrust. do you want every police department in the country to be trained by the new york police department? >> no. one thing they want is more black police officer. they have very few relative to the population. >> eric holder's justice department has intervened in at least 20 police departments in this country. they come in under federal law saying, you either do what we want or we are going to under litigation you will not be able to afford with the government of the united states. so they're basically forcing these local police departments

to to do whatever it is they want to do. that's the nationalization of local police departments. >> let me ask you about the reaction, jason, by rand paul who mentioned in the wake of this that overmilitarization of police department. what's your reaction to that? >> the cops are using higher pow powered weapons because the criminals are using higher powered weapons these days. but again, the problem is not the cops. it's not the racial makeup of the police department. cities like chicago and detroit and new york have a better racial mix. do you see less black violent crime? no, you don't. >> gentlemen, thank you. when we come back, texas governor rick perry just the latest target of a disturbing prosecutorial trend. our panel takes a look at what happens when practicing politics becomes a crime, next. spinach,carrots and peas. [guy] you love it so much. yes you do. but it's good for you, too. [announcer] healthful. flavorful. beneful. from purina.

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this issue is far bigger than me. it's about the rule of law. it's about the constitution that allows not just a governor but every citizen to speak their mind free of political interference or legal intimidation. >> that was texas governor rick perry promising to fight the indictment filed against him in austin last week amid cheers from supporters. perry turned himself in tuesday and was booked on two felony count thes of abuse of power to threat to veto funding. mary, you've read the two-page indictment. summarize the case. >> i've got it right here. you read it and wonder where the rest of it is. as you said, two counts, abuse

of official capacity and coercion of a public servant. >> because of what? >> because the prosecutor is upset that perry threatened to veto funding for this public integrity unit at the travis county d.a. and that he wanted the d.a. to resign. he says that's abuse of office. effectively, paul, what he's trying to do is criminalize the exercise of executive authority. he a's trying to criminalize politics. >> the district attorney here, there's a special prosecutor who made the indictment, but the district attorney was the person at issue because she was convicted of drunk driving and served time in jail and perry said, look, if you don't resign, i'm going to veto the funding for this unit. she didn't resign. he veet 0 toed. >> this lady had almost three times the amount of alcohol 0 in her system. this is who the left is jumping to protect? >> there are people across the spectrum critical of the indictment. but what about the point, dan, that perry was vote toeing

funding for this public integrity unit which goes after corruption in government. and the implication is, the prosecutor hasn't said it, but the implication is he was trying to stop an investigation into his government. >> well, but they have shown -- they offered no proof that that was the case. if that was -- there has to be some evidence if you're going to go that far. >> typically, yes. should be evidence to convict somebody, yes. >> exactly. >> this is a good thing, evidence. >> but most people are watching this and saying, it's a ridiculous indictment, it's a sausage factory. it's just politics. no. they have issued an indictment. governor perry had to go to the police station and be booked and to take a mug shot. this is the problem with special prosecutors in politics. eventually they indict. and once you are indicted, you enter the criminal justice system. it's similar in financial -- if you were to indict a bank, you basically destroy the bank because they can't operate in business. and in this instance, you

basically damage a politician's reputation because they're going to have to respond to criminal justice system. you cannot hide from it. >> mary, what about those who say, look, this can't be a partisan investigation because in fact the special prosecutor is somebody who was appointed by a republican-appointed judge. he's independent of the d.a.'s office. so this is just the fair-minded arbitration of justice. >> he hails from san antonio. look, he may not be known for partisanship before, but i think he will now. again, if you look at this indictment, if you look at the behavior of this d.a., perry i think was doing an excellent job. politically this was the right thing for him to do. >> politically maybe the right thing. he did it transparently. >> what does this do, jason, to per perry's presidential prospects? >> perry's sights are on the primaries. i think this helps him with the base. i think in the short run there is all good wi. >> does this put a cast of paul

over the prospect. >> no. he knows he can get past it. he'll go out and tell donors that. i think it helps him in the short run. >> governor scott walker went through a similar thing, and it has hurt him. using this as a tactic against potential republican presidential candidate s is beginning to merge. >> how do you explain this larger trend of prosecutions of political behavior? in the walker case, it was campaign and coordination, not personality. same with perry. it's the exercise of his office. >> i think it's even bigger than that. there's a bigger effort on left to criminalize politics on the right. look at irs, trying to stop 501 c 4s from participating in politics. harry reid's denuns nation of the koch brothers. >> that's just politics. that's not criminal.

>> look, denunsing the koech brothers, saying you can't participate, if you do, we're coming after you? >> okay. all right. that's it. we've got to go. that's another subject. we have to take another break. when we come back, our hits and misses of the week.

i'm giving a miss to arkansas senator mark pryor who's in a tough reelection fight with tom cotton. senator pryor has been under attack for casting the deciding vote that passed obamacare into law. so this week he ran a campaign ad saying that he had voted for what he called a law that actually helped people with medical problems. he never really identifies the affordable care act, which can i would say gives new meaning to the idea of damming with famed praise. >> i'm giving a hit to former obama campaign director david

plouffe for joining uber to fight cronyism. david isn't exactly the world's biggest fan of smaller government, but if greed gets him over to our point of view, i say good for you, buddy. welcome to the club. >> taking on the taxi cartel. good luck with that. >> another miss for vladimir putin. he's busy invading ukraine, but another crime that was committed was the russian government has decided to shut down a number of mcdonald's restaurants in moscow including the iconic one which opened in 1990. >> have you eaten there? >> i have eaten at one in st. petersburg. it beats eating bear in russia. this it was, when it was oftpen the most popular mcdonald's in the world, a signal of the new free come coming to russia. that's swiftly being withdrawn. >> remember, if you have your own hit or miss, tweet it to us.

that's it for this week 0's show. thanks to my panel and thanks especially to all of you for watching. i'm paul gigot. hope to see you right here next week. we start with a fox news alert. a possible new front for the united states in the fight against isis. this as the pentagon is considering taking action now in syria, including possible air strikes, that after the terror group has virtually erased the border between iraq and syria and has become in the words of the obama administration, quote, an imminent threat to every interest we have. welcome to "america's news headquarters" on this saturday afternoon. i'm eric shaw. >> i'm molly line. patrick dempsey says the air strikes in iraq would not be